Lister Jaguar 'Knobbly'

Details

Brian Lister began racing by building his own specials at the family engineering works, soon realising that his strengths lay in design and construction rather than driving. His initial production cars mostly used MG or Bristol engines with great success. More than one customer was interested in using Jaguar power in the Lister chassis but initially both Lister and Jaguar didn’t think it a good idea but luckily were soon persuaded.
The works Lister Jaguar driven by Archie Scott Brown had a sensationally successful 1957 season and customers for similar cars were soon queueing up outside Lister’s Cambridge premises. The production car proved just as competitive and Brian Lister's distinctive body styling, created in part to minimise frontal area and to reduce the height of the FIA Appendix C windscreen, quickly acquired the soubriquet ‘Knobbly’

‘BHL 103’ was bought by 1951 Le Mans winner Peter Whitehead and he stipulated several changes to the standard car. The Williams & Pritchard body had large cooling vents set into the bodywork behind the front wheel arches and the Morris Minor steering rack was replaced by a Jaguar XK140/150 unit. In a tragically short season (sadly he was killed in an accident during the Tour de France) Whitehead took a victory at Goodwood and a second at Silverstone.

Derek Wilkinson acquired the car for the 1959 season and installed John Bekaert for driving duties, the combination proved highly successful racking up 22 firsts, 11 seconds and 6 thirds over the next two years.

In 1961 the car was sold to Bill de Selincourt who was victorious at the Goodwood 49th Members Meeting in 1962. The car then passed through the hands of Allan Deacon, John Pearson, Ken Yates, Gordon Lee, Bert Young, Count Hubertus Donhoff, Udo Ruttcher and finally to current long time owner Shaun Lynn.

Offered publicly for the first time in over thirty years, ‘BHL103’ is completely race ready prepared by Moto Historics and fitted with an ex-works D-Type engine rebuilt by Chris Gilbert and D-Type gearbox freshly rebuilt by BPA. The car has a continuously documented history and comes with current HTP papers and a large spares package including the original engine block and sand cast carburettors.
“BHL103” is an important historic race car of unquestioned provenance with invitations to Goodwood, Silverstone Classic and Le Mans Classic.